Trump Desperate for Strait Allies

are like cable newspundits. They just sit there, watch the chaos happen and tell you about it later. Hey, looks like you're being robbed. Back to you, John. You don't need to

“wonder if you're living or you need secret service. That's good. Traditional security systems”

only act if someone is already broken in. That's too late. Simply saves active guard outdoor protection. Can help you prevent breakings before they happen. Although I might want to tweak that line from secret service. Can help you the some other agency that hasn't has only misfires lately. Anyway, while other security companies lock you in, simply save comes with no long-term contract. They earn your trust every day by keeping you safe and

satisfied. They're so confident in the protection they provide. They even back it with the

anti theft guarantee. Simply say it protects over 4 million people. They have 20 years experience

at home security. They were just named best home security system of 2026 by US News and World Report and they've been named the best customer service in home security with industry-leading customer satisfaction scores to prove it. What do you love about your simply safe? I said I was simply safe. It's incredibly easy to do. It's easy to customize to your home. The customer's support is great. The app is really easy to use. It's really reliable because you piece of mind.

Right now our listeners can get 50% off their new simply safe system at simplysafe.com/crickid that's simplysafe.com/crickid. There's no safe like simplysafe. In moments like these, it's easy to fill overwhelmed and even easier to fill power with. But we are neither. I'm Stacy Abrams and on my podcast, Assembly Required, I take on each executive action, legislative battle, and breaking news moment by asking three questions. What's really

happening? What can we do about it? And how do we keep going together? This is a space for clarity, strategy, and hope rooted in action, not denial. New episodes of a Assembly Required drop two days. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. Welcome to Plates Avery America. I'm John Favre. I'm John Loveit. I'm Tommy D. Torne. On today's show, we're going to talk about all the latest developments in Trump's war.

The energy crisis he's created. J.D. Vance's courageous opposition via anonymous leaks. The president accusing media outlets of treason and his FCC chair for anything to take

where their broadcast licenses trump fundraising off of the death of American soldiers. And finally,

“what would you trade to get the president's personal cell phone number?”

Holding into the hottest new trend in DC, cold calling Donald Trump. Also, please consider becoming a subscriber if you haven't already so that you don't miss out on any crooked content. Friend of the pod subscribers get our new extra episode of Pods Avery America called Pods Avery America only friends. Many people are saying it's the greatest new show on the air right now. Pods Avery America only friends. Yeah, it's just for the subscribers. It's where we have our

real opinions. Yeah, I'm sure we say it for there. The most correct tape. You'll also get other subscriber only shows like Polar Coaster with Dan Fyfer access to all of our excellent sub-stack newsletters like Pods Avery America open tabs, add free episodes of all your favorite crooked pods, and you get to feel good about supporting an independent pro-democracy media company that Brendan Carr can't shut down. We are beyond, we are beyond his regulatory contract.

So head to crooked.com/friends and subscribe today. All right, let's get to the news.

As the around war enters its third week with no end in sight, Trump said a few words about the

conflict at the top of his remarks during a White House event about the Kennedy Center renovations where it was clear the president had one thing on his mind. We are pounding that area that coasts pounding, pounding, pounding, pounding at heart. They just are pounding from Rick. You know, he knows what it is to pound people. He's a little rough with the couple of the people, but that's okay. I didn't watch that before, and I'd burn that was great work. Just a masterful super-cut there.

There was a lot of pounding. A lot of pounding. You know, well, it's getting pounded. News of Premier Leader Varana, apparently. We're in the New York Post. Allegedly.

“Allegedly. Allegedly. We don't want to slander him. What do you get a lot to do?”

Well, look, you can pound me all the time. I guess we got to be low down on that guy's priority list at this point. Yeah. That was the joke. Yeah, we want to wake up. We want to wake up first, I think. Yeah, a lot of a lot of talk of pounding. Do you think he remembers the Rick Reynolds game when he's talking about this? Yeah, when he was saying Rick there, he was talking about Rick Reynolds who was running the Kennedy Center and then just left. Rick Reynolds, a human, a Twitter troll that

became a human, worked in the Intel world for a while. It was in passionate Germany. It was the

didn't get it. He became the head of the Kennedy Center. I think I fired from that because he was

“pounding artists. He's an asshole. As Trump said, you should be pounding the artists at the”

Kennedy Center. It seems like he's a people person. No, that role. So Trump did address the latest developments in Iran, which he claimed has been literally obliterated before browbeating other countries for not helping the US reopen the straight of hormones by sending warships. Even though he said, quote, we don't need anybody because we already won, even though he just sent 2500 Marines to join the 50,000 US troops deployed in the region, here's more on all that from our very focused

Commander-in-Chief. They have been literally obliterated. Numerous countries have told me there on the way. Some are very enthusiastic about it and some aren't. And when we want to know, do you have any mind sweepers? Well, would rather not get involved, sir. Who's it for you, mean? For 40 years, we're protecting you and you don't want to get involved in something that is very minor. The attack carguerland and knocked it, knocked it literally and destroyed everything

of the island except for the area where the oil is, I call it the pipes. We left the pipes just one simple word and the pipes will be gone too. See, Trump Kennedy Center, it's been

let go to hell. The bones are potentially something that could be unbelievable. There's never

been a paint. I said, someday I'm going to discover a paint. We don't have to actually use gold leaf. Gold leaf is a very, very big and expensive process, but it's a beautiful thing, but not when you use paint. So we three of the war. We are doing Monday morning events about the Kennedy Center renovations and said a lot more about the renovations than he did about the war itself. It's impression of our allies. He talked about how we have 45,000 troops

and he said in Japan, Defending Japan, South Korea, Defending South Korea and Germany. So which of those leaders of those three countries do you think he was doing the impression of? He definitely

“didn't want to do. He stopped us over doing any kind of an accent, which I think is positive.”

Yeah, it is. I thought he was talking about Europe and NATO, but I could be wrong. I think they have some mind sweepers, but it doesn't really matter. I think Chancellor Merch came out today to say, like NATO's not for this. It's a defensive alliance. Why would we send troops to help with you with your war of choice? So maybe he was talking about the Germans, but it could have been Japan,

it could have been South Korea. Yeah. So basically what's happened is, you know, the reportedly

the Iranians have begun to lay mines in the straight-of-form moves, although Trump today said, "We don't know. They might have. We don't know. We can't tell. We haven't seen anything yet." They're obviously still firing at ships, and so not a lot of no ships are going through, basically, right now. Energy prices, I think oil closed, it's still around $100 a barrel today, and so that's the situation right now. And so the Trump wants to open the straight-of-form moves,

but apparently the US military can't do it ourselves, and so he is begging all these countries to join, but then not begging them. No one has really said yes yet. I haven't seen. Have you seen any time? No, not yet. I mean, then he's doing impressions of them that are not very nice. I think the Iranians are letting through oil that are in their tankers, or maybe even Chinese own tankers, so they're letting some oil through. Yeah, I'm sure most of these groups that he's being found

of their pests that Trump started this war didn't consult them, and now he's saying, "Hey, can you help us out?" And he's also being a dick about it, and maybe I'm like the yelling at NATO, like this is not what NATO is for, their defensive alliance. It's also incredibly dangerous. I mean, he says in that press conference that all you need is one Iranian missile or rocket or mine, and you have a catastrophe, and so why would anyone want to participate in that? I mean, we're not

escorting ships to the straight-of-form moves. Yeah, why would the Japanese or the, you know, Germans want to help us out? Trying to build a coalition of straight allies. Yeah, exactly.

“Yeah, yeah, that's what the, that's what the S is for. Yeah, it's hard to figure out where the”

minds are famously, you have to hover both of the mice button over it, and you'll literally only know if there's one, two, three around you. I just want to visit this beside the point, but it is um, the idea of Donald Trump, one of the people of sort of worst tastes you'd ever could imagine suggesting that the Kennedy Center has great bones when it's one of the most beautiful buildings built in, like probably the last hundred years, beautiful thing that he's

planning to destroy, again, not high on the list of reasons to be bothered by Donald Trump, but I do think it's worth mentioning, especially because it is inconceivable even a couple years ago,

maybe even in the first, first, Trump term that you would be, you know, about a week or so

into a war and have unrelated press events related to interior design. You would not typically do that.

a president could possibly think it was worth his or her time to be focused on an architecture of local landmarks during a time in which we've just lost, uh, when now over 13, uh, members of the armed forces, we bomb the school killed over 175 people, but this is the world, we live in. Do you see that he's also considering getting rid of the ionic columns in front of the White

House? Yeah, it's the first Corinthian, the first Corinthian, uh, little more flare, well they're

“got here, right, and I think he, uh, he doesn't really appreciate the kind of story that the”

different kinds of columns tell, but I don't think he took our history 101, it Williams College in 2003, so I guess that's probably why. Well, look at us now. We're distracted from the Iran. Yeah, anyway, yeah, imagine being one of these countries that he wants to get involved in the war, like today he said they hit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, nobody expected that we were shocked. They thought back, every one expected that. What the Iranians are doing is what everyone

expected them to do, which is to fire at US military bases in these places, to close the straight of our moves. And I don't think, uh, most experts I talked to, figure that Iran would view

this as existential, and they would punch back as hard as they possibly could, which probably meant

creating an economic cost. And now there's all the reporting that Trump was high in his own supply after Venezuela, and he either dismissed or ignored warnings about how much more complicated Iran operation would be, and now we're in this mess. And Axios described his staff as having quote, "buyers remorse," but he refuses to back down, so every step is escalatory. And you're telling like NATO or the Philippines or Japan to jump into this situation. Send your troops. I got to say

too, from just a pure political perspective. Can't reflect too well on Donald Trump with the American people that we, we put out a call for our allies to help us, and no one wants to help us. Maybe because he has browbeat all of them, not just in the run up to this war, but on tariffs,

on NATO, on everything else. He has basically spent an entire year and many years before that, just

attacking all of our closest allies. And now he's somehow surprised when they don't come to our aid and for his crazy fucking war plans. Yeah, I mean, I didn't tell us why he was doing this. He clearly didn't tell them either. Yeah, the Tommy's point, maybe the most predictable outcome. I think you can go back and find papers that say, well, and the event that the Supreme Leader is killed, Iran would view it as an existential threat, and therefore might resort to closing the street

of war moves and firing upon other neighboring countries. I get sort of just, and the exercise of what would happen, this is what people said would happen, but he completely unprepared for it. And going around to talk to allies about how they could help after the fact rather than before, like, do you as know, but you know, Leroy Jenkins is when I say Leroy Jenkins is anything to you?

“Of course. But that's what he's doing. It's like, it's actually a pretty Leroy Jenkins going”

to war with Iran and he ran in there and everybody's like, wait, what's he doing? No, we're not you, and so he did. Yeah, he's expecting it right to come in behind him. No, you too, but I know he gave no context for you. Listen, or just you too, a bit for when you ever was like, yeah, he mentioned Cargueland. Cargueland is where, something like 90% of Iranian oil exports go out of, right? And so he talked about bombing the island, all the military installations, not the, not the oil refineries

there. So hasn't yet secured any of Iran's nuclear material. He's talked about potentially seizing Cargueland, deploying another 2,500 marines to the region. It seems like either to take Cargueland or to seize the nuclear material, you would need ground, ground forces, ground troops. Are we getting close to a war do you think, Tommy, that involves ground troops? If we take Cargueland, they have to have a general who's from Boston and has a real

attack attack attack. We got, we got Cargueland. That's beside the point that you were asking about. I find it very hard to believe that the U.S. and Israel, especially the Israelis, would not do something to get the uranium stockpile out of Iran. And I imagine that Trump would prefer

“the Israelis take the lead on that operation, but I think it would be a major operation that”

would probably involve both of us, because we're probably talking about two different nuclear sites. I've seen experts estimate that you need about a thousand personnel to secure and conduct the operation at each. You'd need like a commando team that's trained and digging up and handling nuclear materials themselves to do the actual removal, you would need maybe like an excavator or other earth-moving materials or machines to get at the stuff, because it's under

a rubble, because we bombed it. And then you'd need a bunch of troops to secure a perimeter, you'd need to provide defense against missiles and drones, you would need either to seize a runway or to create a runway to get the shit in and out. And then you'd probably have people like in-theor for a considerable amount of time. This wouldn't be even as well. It would probably

a little simpler in the short-term just like to seize the thing, but then you're just sitting there

15 miles away from the Iranian shore and you can get fired at. Also, how long are you occupying Carg Island? What's the goal? Is the goal just to cut off all oil and gas revenue and the short-term is it to just own their oil and gas in the long-term? I don't really know. So I imagine like there's a

“I think there's like a hundred ninety-nine percent chance that Netanyahu does something to get the HEU out. Now,”

letting these railways do it alone. Each is the highway. The highway was uranium. Sorry. But what happens if, you know, an Israeli commando is captured or taken down? Like there's ways to get more complicated. So I do think this shouldn't be a problem if whether Israel or the US leads because according to Trump, we've killed all the Iranian leaders anyway. So what do you think

that's going on there too? They keep saying the administration and Trump like insinuating that maybe

the new Iatola is injured, that he might be dead. They don't even, Trump's like, I don't even know who we would negotiate with. There's no leaders there anymore. Like it doesn't seem like that's exactly on the level. Yeah, it's weird. Like they're trying to kind of run him down and suggest weakness, but I don't know what to what end and they clearly leaked this suggestion that the new Supreme Leader is gay to the New York Post because that they were then tweeting about it

“and like kind of taking the victory lap on the story. But like again, what's what's the point of this?”

So we wanted diplomacy and have an off-camp. It's really hard to know who's telling the truth because like you obviously know you expect the Iranians to lie because it's like a regime that might lie, but also everything that Trump administration says. There was also this Axio story that like there'd been a there's a diplomatic channel now between wick-off and the Iranians that has opened and then the Iranians were like, "No, that's a complete lie. What are you talking about?"

And then the administration's like, "No, they're lying. They're complete lie." Here's you're like, "I don't know." I don't know. I don't know. It's funny to think that Kamala Harris and the Trump administration agree that neither country is ready for a gay leader. Do you think sort of a ... But even though that's not what you was saying. Is it is what the words meant, but it's not what you was saying. Apparently Iran may be ready. Right. Do you think that Iran

I had told a Buttigieg? So I'm realizing that I'm going to have to moving the honeymoon from straight to her moves to Carg Island was probably a mistake. Anyway. Yeah. Who knows? They're all liars. It's a real rub. I also saw the administration officials told Axio that U.S. involvement could continue until September. Yes, insane. They don't know. Trump talks about this war

like you can turn it off at on. So the Iranians have to say, these really have to say. There are 50,000 troops in the region. American troops in the region right now. All of them are in some way exposed. Some of them have been killed. It's not up to him. They also, you know, they're like, "Well, maybe in a week or two, we can get the navy. You can start escorting ships through the straight-of-formers." Like, that doesn't seem like an easy, easy mission either.

I know. That feels very expensive in time consuming and navy feasible. But there are also the stories about the U.S. Navy escorting ships through the straight. Say they'll start after the end of hostilities. Right. Yeah. What's the point? Yeah. One is the, how are the hostilities ending? Potsave America's brought to you by HIMS. HIMS can't help you fold a fitted sheet. But it can help you

with your performance in bed. Take control of ED with personalized treatments made with Dr. trusted ingredients prescribed by licensed providers 100% online. HIMS offers access to ED treatment options ranging from personalized products to trusted generics that cost 95% less than brand names. If prescribed, you shouldn't have to go out of your way to feel like yourself. HIMS brings expert care straight to you with 100% online access to personalized treatments that put you

or goals first. The goal, erections. This isn't a one-size-fits-all care. It couldn't be.

Then forgets you're in the waiting room. It's your health and goals put first with real medical

“providers making sure you get what you need to get results. Think of HIMS as your digital front”

porch that gets you back to your old self. Put some winking that hog for the 100% online access to trusted treatments for ED and more all in one place to get simple online access to personalized affordable care for ED weight loss and more visit HIMS.com/Cricket that's HIMS.com/Cricket for your free online visit HIMS.com/Cricket. Future products include compounded drug products which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety effectiveness or quality prescription required.

See website for details, restrictions and important safety information. Actual price will depend on product and subscription plan. Pots of America is brought to you by Cook Unity. If you've got culinary taste, you know how expensive exploring your local food scene can get.

chef to use service delivering locally sourced meals from award winning chefs right to your door every week and it's cheaper than other delivery options. Go to cookunity.com/Cricket enter code crooked before check out for 50% off your first week. I love Cook Unity. I at Cook Unity today. I had a headache with vodka sauce with chicken parm and some had some squash in there.

“I think they have a great breakfast burrito. There's so many good things from Cook Unity.”

I get six meals a week and that's just six times either for lunch or sometimes for dinner.

But I just know that I have like this is what I'm having. I always get the kind you can get

all of different kinds. You can get no carbs or whatever but I always get one that has like make sure I have a protein and an vegetable and I just feel good about it. Your food rise fresh never frozen in packaging that keeps meals fresh in the fridge for up to seven days. Cook Unity's packaging is compostable recyclable or reusable. There are hundreds of dishes to choose from. It's really a huge amount of choices. And the menu is updated constantly.

Options for vegan, paleo, pescatarian, gluten free and more. Filter for soy nut and dairy free options. Men use are posted two weeks in advance so you have plenty of time to choose. Experience chef quality meals every week delivered right to your door. Go to cookunity.com/Cricket or entre code cricket before check out for 50% up your first week. That's 50% up your first week by using code cricket or going to cookunity.com/Cricket.

So the war isn't getting any more popular here in America. And one way you can tell without even looking at a poll is by this well-timed and very courageous leak to political source to two senior Trump officials. One of whom texted that in the lead up to striking Iran, Vice President J.D. Vance made his opposition known is quote skeptical quote worried about success and quote just opposes the war. Vance was asked about this while sending next to Trump

in the oval on Monday. Here's what he said. Are you completely on board with the current war in

Iran? I know what you're trying to do, Phil. You're trying to drive a wedge between members of the administration between me and the president. What the president said consistently going back to 2015 and I agreed with him is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon.

“So there's no hesitation given your past statements with the current operation. Well, I think one”

big difference Phil is that we have a smart president whereas in the past we've had dumb presidents and I trust President Trump to get the job done. So that should do it, huh? It's uh, to keep by half I would say from J.D. Vance to keep by half and there there's been you know a series of stories about people gunning for Rubio, the real kind of behind-the-scenes jockying, people who want to draft Rubio and I don't know how plausible that really is but

what I take all of it to mean is just discomfort with Vance and the way Vance is just such a kind of like sleazy and like sleazy operator, Trump is a sleazy operator but not in a way that you like him at the end of it, the way the others do and so they look to Rubio as an alternative

just because like Vance is just so full of shit. First of all Phil knows what he did there,

Phil knows, you know, Phil was being pretty divisive. Like every time Vance gets this question, he has to whine and cry about the question itself and the questioner. So I know you're, I know you're trying to do here a problem. It's like, first of all, that was not convincing. Like I don't, like you could watch Trump's face. I don't think it convinced Trump in that moment that that Vance wasn't trying to put some distance between himself and

in the policy. The idea that Vance thinks he can run away from a policy this consequential when he's the vice president is insane to me. Maybe he thinks he can position himself in 2020 as being less hawkish than Marco Rubio, but like, you know, getting any love from the isolationist wing of the party. Yeah, Rubio has just as much stink on him, if not more than JD Vance. For this war, for any foreign policy vendor, Rubio's the National Security Advisor and the

“Secretary of State. He's been one of the public faces, one of the few public faces. I think you”

can maybe JD could argue that Rubio's more hawkish than he is. Oh, I thought you were saying, sorry, no, in the you were saying that maybe they turned to Rubio. I've only, only not because of any kind of policy difference, but because just, they don't like JD Vance. He's just not a likable guy. It's just a full of shit. They want to like, Rubio is smart enough to your point to know that there's no way to run away from being tied to this. He's embracing it fully because

it's his job to embrace it. I think he's more prone to being it like he has a sort of neocon instincts more than Vance does. But he knows he's got to own this. So he's owning it 100% the idea that, you know, JD Vance is going to be reluctantly the face of the war in Iran. Like it doesn't make him like to use an old joke. It doesn't make him a better person. It just makes him a worse prostitute, you know? So the broader like the, the broader setup here is there's all these stories that Trump is

polling everyone about who they like better. Is it Marco or is it JD? And it's like he did it to a bunch of donors down to Marlago. And I think all the donors of Marlago preferred Rubio. And maybe that's because they're in Florida. Maybe it's because of rich guys. Maybe it's because JD Vance, a prick. Maybe it's because Rubio's been around longer. But yeah, I think they're both covered in the

next time that could be filled by someone like a Tucker Carlson or like a, I don't know, brand

“Paul suggesting he might run. The Tucker thing seems to me the most plausible result of this, right?”

Because you, so let's say the war ends next week or a couple of weeks, right? And, you know, it is obviously destabilizing for quite a long time. But like there isn't any giant catastrophe with, you know, more a ton of U.S. casualties and murder, you know, we're not there for like a year, whatever else. Then JD Vance thinks, okay, well, when it comes time for the primary, it's not really going to get brought up that much anyway. And maybe if I get asked about it,

I can say, well, I think everyone knows for sure back then I got some shit for it that I wasn't exactly for the war and then that's fine. But in any scenario where this is still a problem, where there are like real consequences for this war, I think that like there is no way the JD Vance or Marker Rubio are ever going to be able to run away from this. And it's going to go and all the energy, even if even if some donors like Rubio and some of the party establishment decides

to like Rubio, which you could see whatever's left of the establishment or Vance, all the energy in a Republican primary is going to be for these, the Tucker Carlson,

Megan Kelly, anti-war, calling themselves America first, Marjorie Taylor Green, whatever it is,

that side of the party, that's going to be the energy in a primary and like JD Vance is going to get killed and so is Rubio. Yeah, I don't, even if, look, let's hope this is not something that is dominating the news, whatever, a year from now. I still think this has such a big, I don't know how JD Vance is going to go around saying he's not for wars in the Middle East after this because they did, they ran that, that was exactly what they said. And now we're in the

“middle of it. And I think it's a genuine conviction on the part of the, not just like the Megan”

Kelly's of the world, but the podcast, like the like the kind of big influencer is like a lot of voices on the right and then there's just not going to forget this or it's not going to be

able to walk back and by the way, JD Vance is not going to be able to walk it. Like Donald Trump

is going to be around, you think JD Vance is going to be able to successfully run away from Donald Trump. I find that hard to believe. I do wonder there, like the way that Trump was like seeing completely fine there, didn't seem perturbed. Like I wonder if Trump was like, well, I made the decision if you need it for politics to just, I wonder if Trump is okay with that, is what I was wondering. It's hard to tell. I can't tell either. I was trying to watch his face,

and it was not clear to me whether he was annoyed or not. I mean, as this thing goes continues and gets worse. I'm sure he'll get increasingly angry at everyone around him. But if I ran against him, I would say, JD, you can tell us now that you were opposed to this war, but when the chips were down, you were feckless and then you were silent. Yeah, were you, were you, did you agree with it? Or were you just weak and ineffective inside of the administration? And by the way, like Rand Paul is one

thing, if it is, someone like Tucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson is going to rip him to pieces because he's not going to be able on a debate stage to get away with the kind of hemming and high that he's doing in this room. I mean, over and over again, were you forward or not? Were you against it or not? Now, the smart politics for Trump would be to let JD vans like have that other position, you know? I mean, honestly, even what even what Trump did there was better to JD vans than what

fucking Joe Biden did to Kamala Harris on Gaza, right? And I, I don't know, according to all the reporting, privately, yes, privately, privately telling our no-day lights certainly wasn't great.

“That's what I'm saying, like she could have staked out a position where she voiced her honest”

criticisms about Gaza and now we've seen from all the reporting that he didn't want her to do even that. Yeah. Which it, I just didn't be clear, was both, you know, that Kamala had agency there, too. So, right, you Joe Biden didn't make Kamala. No, that is not true. It's interesting. No, it was interesting to me that Trump has, like, let this go. It's not, it had a big problem with that. I have the same thought, which is that it, it is, are we going to be in a situation where Donald

Trump gives more space to his VP to operate than then Joe Biden did? I think it's possible. So, the political blowback over the war is clearly getting to Trump on Sunday night. He falsely accused US media outlets of working with Iran to amplify fake news about Iran and said that those outlets, quote, should be brought up on charges of treason. This was after FCC chair, Brendan Carr, who was with Trump at Mar-Lago over the weekend, threatened to cancel television

broadcasters licenses over their war coverage. Trump then spent his flight home to DC attacking reporters for asking even the most basic questions about Iran. Let's listen. You look sending, but that's it. You know, the military strategy, who we're talking about. No one answer a question like this. Why do you bring up because, now we're mediaing up, so we're not going to put it on someone, putting it on information that they know is false,

and it's very dangerous. I think I think you're getting serious, Trump.

You know, you're getting a great evening, and you're right. I said you're pretty good. I didn't say it, oh, can you win? I think it's great. In the most corrupt, in this organization, I think that's it. It's our time to win. I don't want to, I can't be with you. Do you have the time to see some of this guy personally?

“That's what it looks like. It's just a testy. I mean, it's barely in the news today,”

but you know, it just seemed like the president threatening to shut down media outlets and charged them with treason, kind of a big deal. Yes, he's bad. Yeah, I'm sort of, he does that, so I'm saying it doesn't lead to you. But Trump does that. He calls people there's like treason, and it says he's going to bring him up on charges. I think the car stuff is more important because the threat itself isn't up to try to intimidate people into kind of hesitating. Right. Like he's

even if he never acts on it, right? And people know that the FCC chair is like watching this closely.

Like maybe just like worry about a headline a little bit more that seems to be antagonistic to the administration. I think it's really dangerous, even Brendan Carras said that the, that the government shouldn't sense or speech doesn't like. The FCC does not have a roving mandate to police to speech to police speech in the name of the public interest. And like the idea that he is now made himself the kind of assignment editor and national ombudsman of the media,

well kind of posting AI meme slot from the White House. That to me is really dangerous and more dangerous than Trump being in a bad mood because his war is going poorly. He doesn't like the

“coverage because Brendan Carras is doing a thing about this all day every day. Yeah, as I think it's worth”

remembering how bad the media coverage was in the run up to the Iraq war and how the anti war voices were censored because thinking back to then like the structural setup was, for example, NBC is owned by GE, which is like one of the biggest contractors of the Pentagon. Then you have reporters embedded with the US military and their networks booking like current and former military guests. So you're constantly getting the pro military perspective from that little silo.

Fox News is branding anyone who opposes the war as anti-American, but even MSNBC was canceling their number one show with Phil Donahue because there was war. They were word he was too anti war. Then you have Judy Miller at the New York Times, Laundering Intelligence for the Bush administration and it's like the a bad setup. It's very easy to be pro-war. It's very hard to be against these wars and the natural instinct is to be patriotic and there's limitations and coverage that come from

logistics and the nature of the Pentagon and how these things work. So you don't need to have Brendan Carr running around for the media to be tilted in a pro-war way already, but adding that on top of it, I think is a really big deal and a pretty dangerous development in a sign that he's really flailing and he knows things are going badly. It's also worth pointing out how

absurd the complaints are with the coverage here, which is like, first of all, what Trump was talking

about is that there was like an image of Iranian celebrating the new Supreme Leader in the streets and it turned out that it was AI and it wasn't that many people. That was a, I don't even remember, like there's not a lot of U.S. media outlets that were making that a huge thing. He's famously cares about accurate criticism. That's going to say like that was a problem. That's, so that's his complaint. The real complaints are that the media is what reporting

as Pete Higgs-Eth said the other week that it's front page news that Americans died in a war. That's the complaint now. Yeah, we're talking about American deaths in a war and we're asking things like, hey, how long is the war going to ask and are you going to send men and women into a run on the ground and risk their lives? Just like basic questions like that. And he was angry about a headline about a, I believe, Wall Street Journal's story about a number of

planes that were damaged by an Iranian bomb and how damaged they were. Yeah, he's sort of dancing on the head of a pin Higgs-Eth on the end of last week. So in sort of his petulent childish way, I was like, I can't wait for David Ellison to take over CNN. Like they're all just petulated. Like with Donald Trump like in that moment, what he really is saying is, you're also fucking negative. You're asking me about, you're just being negative. You're just as negative. You're not talking

about all the good stuff we're doing. You're bringing up all the stuff that I, that is both terrible, but also wounds my ego, the pack that Americans have died. That's an insult to me, because it makes me look bad, because I'm the one who caused those Americans to die, which he did, right? By launching this war, he invited that we're going to be a response. And now Americans are dead because if it doesn't have to be confronted with that, that's what

“that's what this is really about. Yeah, I think it's also worth pointing out that like”

Brandon Carr's threat is completely empty. I mean, he can try, but like from a legal standpoint.

First of all, he only has oversight over broadcast licenses for local television networks.

And, you know, Brian Stelter and some others looked into this like you used, you started to try to

just made up inaccurate coverage, which he can't cite. It's just not going to happen. Now,

he can still threaten them. And as we saw with the chemical thing, like you threaten the local broadcasters and then maybe you get the parent companies, like the ABCs and NBCs to worry a little bit, but like it's the whole thing is just like crazy fucking bluster, but it's meant to intimidate.

“You know, and it's like, and I think that's the Trump treason thing is, too, because like, yeah,”

Trump's not going to bring them up on charges of treason, but like, you know, the DOJ has been charging people left and right, or trying to charge people left and right, and he also has sued a bunch of people personally. Yeah, I was like, I think it's more than bluster. Like, Trump is threatening people, he's threatening people with the DOJ prosecution. But then they kind of,

you know, we just saw that the prosecution against the Fed chair got thrown out by a judge.

Like, they've running into the sort of the brute incompetence of his DOJ. Like, Brennan Car can tie things up. He can get all the affiliates to be worried, get the affiliates starting to be worried that the parent company is going to cause a prompt. Like, this can be like, we saw that with Kimmel, but like, he has a lot of just the threat, I think, is really dangerous. And yes, obviously, you don't need to be like a constitutional scholar to know that the FCC can't decide what the

news is on behalf of these organizations, but that doesn't mean he can't do a lot of damage and get the network lawyers to become a little bit less permissive. And then all of a sudden, they have had an impact on what we're seeing without us ever even knowing it. Yeah, my only argument is that

it's not that it's just bluster. It's that Brennan Car's threats and Donald Trump's threats

“are the same level of dangerous. Because like, I think that that legally Brennan Car doesn't have”

as much power as he thinks he is, but the threat from car and the threat from Trump, the goal is intimidation and, you know, it probably can work. So, Trump isn't just targeting mainstream outlets over there around coverage. He's pissed at Trump friendly pundits, too. One of his deranged Sunday night posts was a lengthy defense of right-wing, warm-unger Mark Levin against the right-wing pundits who criticized him over Iran, like Megan Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Candice Owens,

Trump called Levin's critics, quote, "jealous in angry human beings who, quote, are not maga," and quote, "will quickly fall by the wayside." The feud heated up over the weekend when Kelly hit back at Levin calling her evil and diabolical. Um, and so Kelly tweeted back at Levin, quote, "I'm sorry you have a micro penis, but don't drag the rest of us into your drama." Very importantly, Marjorie Taylor Green jumped in to say that quote, "maga has been destroyed

by micro penis Mark Levin." Is she right? So, where did micro penis come in? Like, where? It's just a good question. Right. Well, we know, you know, we know where it, you know, we know where it ends, we just don't know where it begins. I feel like the whole feud's been inching towards that for a while now. Right. Right. I mean, obviously we're not going to die too deep into it, but, uh, make it manually just, just as Mark Levin has a micro penis. Not a grower or a

shower. This is just the tip of a much smaller iceberg. Right. Right. No, I know. And it is, and it's just creating a lot of, surprising amount of motion in the ocean. Very little friction. She did, she'd explain, she tried to explain it in a lengthy video. You watch that whole video. I did too. I did as well. I started and I got out. Oh, it's great. This is what you want to look. Well, the short version, the TLDR is Megan Kelly was mean to Mark Levin. Well, there is no

longer. So, Levin called Daddy Trump to send it to eat, defending him against the mean woman.

“Who's not nice to him was Megan Kelly. I think this, this fight dates back to the last”

buildup to the Iran war. If we want to get into that. I mean, like, Levin is very hawkish. He's in favor bombing Iran. He's very favor of Israel and Netanyahu in particular. Mark Levin is known that Mark Levin went in sat in the audience at Netanyahu's trial in Israel. Like, that child. Much of those buddies. And then Tucker Carlson at the time, let this last June or the run up to the June war, was very against the war. Also not a big fan of

Israel. Also not a fan of Netanyahu. He converged into antisemitism. And then, so the two started going to war over this policy and then Charlie Kirk gets dragged in, making Kelly gets dragged in. You sprinkle in like a tablespoon of Candace Owens. You got a dash of Ben Shapiro, you know, like a little bit of Nick Fuentes. And now this is just a full-on mega-media war. And there's some polling that shows that maga is for whatever Trump is for. And I think that is generally

true. But Megan Kelly, Tucker Carlson, they are attuned to their audiences. And they know what is getting downloads and attention. And they watched the data. So I don't think they go down this path that they didn't feel like there was an audience for it. And there's also polling that shows that U.S. views sourced Israel have changed dramatically since 2023 from medically, including among Republicans, 9-point shift and favorability among Republicans. I think there's things happening

under the surface. So Trump might be maga. And that might be the case for now. But I think this

Some of it is foreign policy. Like we talked about with JDVans, some of it is support for Israel. But we get to enjoy the fruits of it in the form of a micro penis. Yeah, under the surface. And you know, under Mark Levin's pants. It's really, it's really, it's actually like really been popping off. But yeah, your question, love it though. It's basically she says, so he like tweeted about her 100 times and said all these vile shit about her. And she said, like, you know, I

sent a few brushback tweets as she just wanted to do. And then she said, you know, and I just, then I just decided to just reveal that he has a micro penis, not that she's a not that I've seen it myself. But clearly, we've all been exposed to it because someone who acts that hawkish and tries to overcome and say clearly has a micro penis. Like that's just something

that you know. Yeah, she said, a thankler. I've never had to look at it firsthand. But you can just tell

then she goes, when they go low, we go micro penis. And then she said, so obviously Trump's truth social post was drafted by Levin and Levin's post thanking the president is equally long.

“It was the only thing that is. Wow. That's good. Yeah, they go low, we go small. That's good.”

That would have been good. And like Ben Shapiro has been basically challenging Megan Kelly and others to like denounce Candace Owens, which I don't think she has done, or at least not to his satisfaction. And so like there is like this to real like yeah. And it is always like nothing is more upsetting to a right wing figure than to be treated like a Democrat. It's like the most hard like they can't understand what's like, why are you talking this way about me? I'm not one of those people.

You're not supposed to talk this way. And like they can't, it's a shocking experience. Amazing.

Speaking of Tucker. Did you guys see that he said he thinks that the administration might charge him with under a fair violation acting as an agent of a foreign power for talking to people in Iran before the war, which he claims they knew he was doing because the CIA read his texts. Yeah. So I didn't watch the whole episode. Tucker did on this. He did like a five minute clip that I just watched. It is certainly possible if not quite likely that if Tucker was emailing

with some Iranian officials, that gets picked up by the NSA or somebody and maybe that can get reviewed. I find it very unlikely that the government would then tell him that or that he would have committed a crime in the process. So I don't get out. It's a fair violation or any kind of violation. And there's, there's been some other anonymous sources batting it down saying no, no, no, no, it's going to charge Tucker, which is obviously, you know, I don't want to see

Tucker Carl's in charge with a crime for the for for for for simply talking to people and doing journalism. I don't want that to happen. Candice Owen said that if it happens, we write it done. But where? Like, so I guess, are we joining that as well? Yeah. First

“to member protect Tracy Town. Yeah, I think I think that Ben Shapiro feud with Megan Kelly”

is that Ben wants Megan to denounce Candice for saying that Erica Kirk got Charlie Kirk killed. Right. And she won't. Yeah, the Candice stuff on that as well. Really believe over that. She's, she's a disturbed individual. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Spring is in the air and while you're checking off organizational task owners, spring cleaning to do lists, it's important not to forget about yourself.

Therapy offers a space to slow down and stretch out when your mind feels overwhelmed with clutter. Better help therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and or fully licensed in the U.S. Better help does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences, and there are 12 plus years of experience and industry-leading match. The filament rate means they

typically get it right the first time. If you aren't happy with your match, switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored wrecks. With over 30,000 therapists, better help

is the world's largest online therapy platform. Having served 6 million people globally,

and it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session, based on over 1.7 million client reviews, your emotional well-being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy sign-up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/PSA. That's BetterHELP.com/PSA. In moments like these, it's easy to fill overwhelmed and even easier to fill power with. But we are neither. I'm Stacy Abrams, and on my podcast, Assembly Required,

I take on each executive action, legislative battle, and breaking news moment by asking three

“questions. What's really happening? What can we do about it? And how do we keep going together?”

This is a space for clarity, strategy, and hope rooted in action, not denial. New episodes of Assembly Required drop Tuesdays. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. Believe it or not, since it involves Trump, there's also a corruption angle

a call that never surrender ink sent out a fundraising email featuring a photo of the president

“in front of a flag draped coffin at the dignified transfer of six soldiers who were killed”

during the war's first week. The email presented readers with the opportunity to sign up for a quote, "National Security Briefing Membership," which for the price of a donation would send them the president's personal private quote, "National Security Briefings" and unfiltered updates on the threats facing America. That news came after the New York Times reported the Jared Kushner, the president's second choice son-in-law, and one of the United States' lead negotiators in

the Middle East, has been asking governments in the region to fund his private investment firm, isn't that nice? Kushner's firm reportedly recently met with Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which already contributed to billion to the fund at the beginning of the Trump administration,

and is planning to seek funding from the sovereign wealth funds of the UAE and Qatar.

Where do you guys all want to start? Fundraising for your pack off of the death of American soldiers or fundraising for your investment fund off of your alleged role as the diplomat

“tasked with ending two wars? What's worse? What do you think?”

Really one of the most disgusting images I think have ever seen shocking. Actually shocking, they're in that white hat. There's a literal coffin in the image. They're using the coffin of a dead service member to raise money. Uncontrollable in any other era would be a massive ongoing scandal at the president. We're asked about it. He would immediately say it was a terrible mistake that the person who was responsible would be fired. It would still be a big scandal.

There would be apologies. There'd be a cross-the-board condemnation from Democrats and

Republicans, but this is just a blip because it's Donald Trump.

Yeah, I had the same reaction. I mean, it was genuinely shocking how tasteless it was, but also a politically stupid, it was. I mean, I can't fire that person. It's criminally stupid. And by the way, as is happening, there were gofundmees going around for the families of these dead service members that I don't think Donald Trump is supporting. So yeah, Chuck, you don't want to tee off on Jared? I'm going to take the over on it. All right, because Jared

Kushner and Whitcomff and maybe the both real sons potentially making money on this is the only way I can see to warn Iran ending with the the most recent living Ayatollah in the Oval Office with Trump talking about how beautiful the straight-of-armoses and like what a beautiful property. It's going to be, and actually I didn't know until Jared showed me how beautiful it is. It's

“beautiful place. All I think about is, you know, remember we were talking about the minds.”

All was all about the minds. The minds is going to be beautiful. It's going to be fantastic place, and we're so grateful to the new Ayatollah for recognizing Israel. It's going to be a beautiful property. We're new head of the Palestinian Authority will be there too to talk about all the new of the rises in Gaza. Well, that's Whitcomff. So that makes sense. So the younger. So yeah, that's to me. I'm going to take the over on that one. I think the corruption is good.

Yeah, so Jared left the administration started this investment fund and he raised a bunch of money from the Saudis, billions from the Saudis, a bunch of money from the Qataris and the Emirates. And that to me felt like kickbacks for services already rendered, and there was all these reporting at the time that, you know, the professionals at the sovereign wealth funds did not want to invest with Jared, but they were overruled by like MBS and other political actors.

Jared then went into the wilderness for a while. Now he's back. He's doing negotiations with the Russians, with Ukraine, with his doing stuff in Gaza. Now he's part of the Iran talks. And he said that he would not be making any money off the board of peace. He would not be raising money from the Gulf countries that he's working with. Of course, that was a lie. And to avoid conflict, he said that, too. Yeah, use the words. And now he's trying to get more

money for a, for a guess for future favors. Also, at the same time, I mean, there's all this reporting that the Russians are providing intelligence to the Iranians to help them kill US service members. I saw that the guy who runs the Russian sovereign wealth fund was back down to Miami for meetings with Jared and Wikoff presumably at one of their homes. Also, we're moving sanctions on the oil, which is going to give them more money. So we're

ostensibly funding out both sides of this conflict, not only and also strengthening Russia, and Ukraine at the same time. Yep. And the Emirates bought 50% or 49% of the crypto company to the Trump families started. So the corruption in the rot is just so deep that I almost wasn't surprised by Jared raising this money. But it's just, it's so frustrating. It's this man. He doesn't have a government job. He has no official role. There's no oversight. There's nothing.

But he's like out there briefing reporters is a senior administration official. Yep. Yep. Even though he's supposed to not be having actual role in the government, except his role is apparently to cosplay making peace and then raising a bunch of money

from different people. And I have friends with family in Iran and they were talking about how they just are waiting for regular updates when the member of their family can get Wi-Fi just to say

“that he's safe. Right. Like that's what that's what they're living in between. Like thankfully,”

some members of the family got out before. But now they're just, they're always really nervous to

hope everything's okay. And they just wait for when the internet's working to get a regular update. And then at the same time, I was hearing from family friends about an elderly relative in Israel, who is informed and so it is difficult for her to get in and out of shelters when their bomb sirens that are going off. And that's happening all the time. And it's just really difficult. It's hard on the health and it and you just like the real world consequences of this

are just nowhere for these people. Like there's the actual day-to-day, the sheer scale of what they've unleashed, right? The amount of people impacted by this. The number of people who are getting killed and whose lives have been up ended. Like the chaos they've unleashed, it just feels so abstract to them even now two weeks into it for Kushner obviously for Wiccoff but for Trump, which is why when he's asked about the dead, service members or anything like that,

he's like almost angry to be confronted by the actual reality of what he's done because he wants to only live in the fun story version that he's telling himself. But as, you know, or well had said, famously quoted by Christie fucking gnome, war is the one thing that intercedes on an authoritarian, right? The reality of a war you can't pretend it's not happening.

“And that's what's happening. And the true, the Pentagon's been hiding the true casually count.”

We don't really know, but I saw today the Washington Post, I think, reported that 200 service members have been wounded as well, so there's a lot of people getting hurt. And also like add to your list of real human beings impacted by this war, the 800,000 people who have been evacuated from their homes in Lebanon because these railways are basically telling everyone who live so then like 25 miles of the border that they have to leave. To choose to see the Israeli's

announced today too, that they're not allowed back. I think what's happening here, I think this is going to go, I think what's happening in Lebanon is going to go on a lot longer than what's happening in Iran and that it's going to end with Israel trying to permanently occupy a lot of Lebanese territory. It sounds like they want to, if they're not going to let fucking 800,000 people return to their homes. And either they're not, there are no, they're just, in fact, you learned

in Gaza, and so now they're evacuating like major swaths of Bay Route, which is a huge city.

“Just using the opportunity of the conflict to pursue their larger purposes. And the region,”

which Trump is totally fine with, and Huckabee is totally fine with, there is no breaks. Yeah, has blood, obviously, terrible organization kills indiscriminately, kills Israelis, kills Jews, kills Christians, and in Lebanon as well. But yeah, I mean, the idea that it's strategically smart to undertake this massive operation as you're in the midst of a war with Iran, it feels like a bad idea and it's just more of a cynical way to use everyone being distracted to do things you

always wanted to do. So speaking of corruption, the times also published a piece over the weekend

about the stock trading habits of Senator Mark Wayne Mullin, Trump's picture replace Christina home at DHS, Mullin reportedly bought shares in Chevron, the only U.S. oil supplier with an acts of operation in Venezuela five days before the United States attacked the country and later vowed to take over oil operations. According to the times, Mullin has become quite the trader, reporting at least 130 trades last year, and outperforming the market by 8%.

Sure, it's just a coincidence. After selling this company, this is from the time story too, after selling this company in 2021, Mullin reported fewer than 30 stock trades in 2022. In 2023, his first share is a Senator that jumped to 100. So suddenly, he just has trading a lot of stock these days. And, you know, his assets originally when he got to the Senate were between $2.89 million.

When he first got to the house, now it's between $29 million and $97 million.

Jesus. Guess he did some good trading, huh? Yeah, it's good work, should. What do you guys think about Mark Wayne Mullins? He's got a confirmation hearing this Thursday. It is very tempting. I imagine for Democrats to focus on this story in the hearing, but what do you guys think? Divine Conquer. I mean, this should be a part of it. Someone should should dig in on this, because Donald Trump, in the state of the Union, one of his biggest

applause lines was banning stock trading. And he wants to make it all about Pelosi and her preventing that from happening. And frankly, Pelosi is not being good on this issue. And it's it really sucks who the next Democrats look bad. But members of Congress should not be allowed to buy and sell individual stocks. It is an absolute no-brainer that they should have their assets in a blind trust or something. They should not be buying and selling crypto. They shouldn't be selling

futures or using polymarket or calcium, the bet on events. I mean, like, I will never believe it's a coincidence. This guy bought a bunch of Chevron stock five days before we toppled the dictator in Venezuela and installed a much more oil-friendly dictator in Venezuela. Yeah, it was a third party. It was a third party. I believe that statement. There is definitely even

there's plenty of room inside of that statement from to be doing whatever he wants.

Yeah, they should not be trading individual stocks. None of us should be trading individual stocks, because we're not stock traders. And the only reason it would make sense for members of Congress to be trading stock is because they have insider information. Even in an example, they were proud of in this story. There was a member of Congress who was on a board and was bragging about the company to everybody on the committee. So that's one of the reasons people were

buying stock in that. What are we doing here? Chris Collins, anyone who's great. And well, he went to jail for not for that same thing. I know. It goes to jail for charges inside of trade for insider trading for not that not the one he was most proud of and Trump pardon him and Trump pardon him because he doesn't believe in insider trading. He thinks that's just good trading and we also have all the by the way. God only knows what these

people are doing on the betting markets, which we don't have any insight into. No. Where they're

“trading with insider information, because the only way it makes sense is because these trades on”

my calcium and polymarket are because of insider information. So of course it should be banned. And by the way, the disclosure rules should be better. Why on earth, we have ridiculous ranges where we find out how much money they have between nine and 90 million. That is a ridiculous space set up by members of Congress to make it kind of confusing how much money they have and how much money they've made. We should have more disclosure for them more frequently.

Like there's a whole bunch of reforms that would make this less of an issue. Botsay of America is brought to you by Haya. Some children's vitamins on the market today contain up to seven grams of sugar per serving and are stuffed with artificial additives and petroleum-based diets. Haya took the opposite approach zero sugar, zero gummy additives, just clean nutrition, working alongside pediatricians and nutrition scientists, Haya created a super power

chewable vitamin. The packs of blend of 12 organic fruits and vegetables plus 15 essential

vitamins and minerals into every dose. The ingredient list is clean, non-GMO, vegan dairy-free allergy-free gelatin-free, nut-free. They thought of everything. Designed for kids, too, and up. Haya shipped straight to your door. You get this awesome reusable bottle with your first order, and then they send refills every month. Tommy, you have children. You know, I was over at the Fabrocessor yesterday, and Charlie had just solved Firmeth's last theorem. Oh, and turns out the

previous proof was wrong, so he really actually is the first one ever to solve. Oh, that's great.

“I'm glad they finally cleared that up. What is, what is, I can't even remember what Firmeth's”

is for me, it's for me, it's for me, it's for me, it's for me, it's for me, it's for me, it's for me. What is this family n plus B to the n plus B to the n? Oh, oh, yeah, because obviously we all know A square plus B square equals C squared, but it turns out there are no integers for which anything above two can be solved, but the question is, is that true? It wasn't an elegant proof until Charlie started taking high of vitamins, which he loves. And I think the pharaohs are struggling to get

him to eat those green vegetables, but Haya's kids daily greens plus superfood is a total

game changer for that too. It's basically chocolate milk, stuffed with veggies. It's a green

to powder that's packed with 55 hole-to-source ingredients, just one scoop with milk or milk alternative, and watch them actually enjoy something that's secretly fueling their growing bodies. I really would like Charlie Faber to turn his his sights on the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, because I think that thing's ready to go. I bet that's I'm excited for that. Let's challenge the Copenhagen interpretation. We've already had a special deal for Haya for their

“best-selling toldon environment received 50% up your first order to claim this deal you must go”

to Haya helped com slash crooked. This deal is not available on their regular website go to H.I. Y. A. H.E. A. L. T. H. dot com slash crooked and get your kids the full body nourishment they need to grow to help you adults. In moments like these it's easy to fill overwhelmed and even easier to fill powerless, but we are neither. I'm Stacey Abrams and on my podcast assembly required, I take on each executive action legislative battle and breaking news moment by asking three

questions. What's really happening? What can we do about it? And how do we keep going together? This is a space for clarity, strategy, and hope rooted in action, not denial. New episodes of assembly required drop Tuesdays tune in wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. So one kind of fun kind of pathetic story before we go. You may have noticed the recent trend of Trump just giving random interviews to any reporter who calls him. Turns out there's a reason

everyone now has access to the president's personal cell phone number. The Atlantic reported over the weekend, and then Semaphore followed up as well, that Trump's number has become the the biggest open secret in Washington with journalists openly trading it among themselves. So many now have access to it and have been using it to regularly call the president. The White House advisors have stopped keeping track of who's calling and according to one White House official

as many as quote 10 reporters will call in a matter of two hours. Trump, unsurprisingly, loves the attention. He apparently has gotten into the habit of keeping his phone screen face up during meetings to just watch the notifications roll in. And I'm rollin loves it. Trump aids have said that

from getting a hold of it. You guys have it yet? Yeah, yeah, so we give them a call. I got it.

You got it? Yeah. I got it from our reporter. What's home? Oh, calm now. Do we have a plan? What are we going to say? Oh, I was just going to call and say Tom B. Torre from Potset of America, calm down and recorded line. How are you? Great. All right, we're recorded line. Oh, that's important. The West Palm Beach River. Be so awkward when he calls me back after we're now recording. Do you think he calls back? No, he just he just a receiver of calls. It's going to be

the last call. Don't we prank Rudy Giuliani once? Oh, Sean Hannity. And boy, but he get the last

“last time. Sorry, guys. I didn't deliver on that one. You think he's checking his voicemails?”

Well, I'm sure what happened with me today was I sent two texts to people who I thought might have the number and one of them gave them me the number and right? I mean, there's been a bunch of news reports. Because it's over how easy it is to get it. So maybe today was the last day.

And now he's finally got the changes number. Like when everybody's emails were in that Sony hack.

Yes, yes, because it sounds like there was one someone wrote a piece of the the Atlantic piece on this made it sound like I think one reporter kind of figured this out early as like Garrett Hawker somebody and got Trump's reaction to something about Biden really or dropping out by dropping out really early on and had a scoop. And then every other reporter was like, oh, this dude is just taking calls from press now. Also, I think maybe next time, love it, or I should

try because we have two or two numbers. And so he probably sees two or two and says, oh, it's DC and you you don't have a two or two. No, I'll let her in. Well, what's right, guys? We'll try again. We'll try once in episode. Okay. Great. I like that. I like that. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, you do interview every six months. Tell us what we should ask everyone. Send in send in your

question. One to ask the president. Okay. So we in case we get them on the horn. Get them on the

blower, you know. What gives you hope? I have to, there's a whole story about the the stress in three books. Yeah. Right. How do I convince my relative who loves Trump to not vote for me more? Where's that climate pod you fucks? So apparently like CEOs and crypto bro's offering money for the number. This is in the story. Uh, sure. Yeah. It's a couple of other funny parts to tell you. One of those is the administrative, this is like everyone's calling. You know, they're like not just the big outlets,

but like the smaller outlets, us now, you know. But then it says the administration officials say sub-stack authors have started to call forcing White House staff to look up names. They don't rookie. That's so funny. Well, no, the sub-stack. Well, we didn't talk about this that today, uh, in twice. It is two different press events today. Uh, he made reference to a former president who he likes, who said he was right to go in to Iran and then he's asked to wish I had done that.

We are so wish I had done that. And then he's asked by, uh, do see later that day who are you referring to, was it George W. Bush? No. Was it Bill Clinton? I'm not saying. But you know, it's from these endless. You said from him being on the fucking phone all the time. Yeah. Well, I assumed that Donald Trump probably called Bill Clinton to commiserate about being unfairly treated over Jeffrey Epstein. 100%. I feel like that's 99%. I mean, it's not Barack Obama. I have a hard time believing,

because he also said he's like, someone I actually like, yeah, but it wouldn't be good for their career. Well, he's like, they don't, they don't have much of a career anywhere at this point.

“Well, I mean, no, it's four, it's four for him. That's what I'm saying. So we think it's got to be,”

it's, or is he often does? He's just lying. He could make it out. But I mean, Clinton Biden, no, Obama. I do not think Bruno Obama is talking to Trump on the phone saying he wished he had bombed around it. Don't think it's Obama. So it's, I think it's Clinton Biden or Bush doesn't make sense for it to be Bush the way he's talking about it, probably not Biden. So you're really Clinton Clinton. Clinton Clinton people are saying it's wasn't him. I mean, which I may not know.

They may not know. I don't know if they're Jimmy Carter. Oh, that's it for that's huge. It was that it was there window where Jimmy C might have said, I wish I'd gone into it. I'm not before this current operation. What did Jimmy Carter die? Was it before after midnight? It was before midnight. Do you think peace advocate and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jimmy Carter? In his hundredth year, God on the phone with Donald Trump and said, God damn it, I wish I fucking bombed around.

I mean, I mean, I mean, it did fuck up his administration. Yeah, it didn't look. It's a presidency up. Hey, let's put it on the list. Yeah, that's tough to be tied to. I had a conversation with Bill Clinton where he mentions Iran and in, in, in Trump's mind, Clinton said that and in Clinton's mind, if you asked Clinton about the conversation, Clinton didn't say that. Well, that's what I would. Two guys that are famously great. I remember what they said. That's what I'm

that's what I'm getting at. That's what I'm getting at. That's what I'm getting at. That's what I'm

“getting at. That's what I'm getting at. I think I just, we have just a serious thing about how”

accessible Donald Trump is because this goes to we're talking about earlier, which is like, oh, he's calling people treasonous. Like, he is incredibly accessible and I do not think a Democrat needs to be as accessible as this, but like, man, there is value to having Donald Trump

that represent us to learn, like, man, how much space he has to move because he's out there

time after time, after time, just sort of new layer of, you know, like, like, just new layer of paint, new layer of paint. And yeah, sure the windows don't open anymore because they're sealed shut from fucking paint. You can't access the outlets because they're so much paint. But man, do we think it is, do we think it is, um, it's certainly better for freedom of the press, for sure. It's, it's probably better for the public to have the president be more accessible.

“I think that the next Democratic president should obviously be much more accessible than Joe Biden was.”

Do we think it has been good for Trump to be this accessible in this, in this administration, with his sub 40, uh, his 40% appropriating? I think that he definitely gets a lot of flexibility in leeway for doing so many reps. Um, I think he's figured out how to make scandals go away a little bit faster, not all of them. Like, Epstein didn't go away. It was alive for months and months, it's still alive. I think in this instance of our run, he's taken, like, 30 phone calls from reporters

and given 30 different messages. So that part is not helped him. Yeah. I also think that's in C at times. Part of his ability to control the narrative is not his choice to be accessible, but his choice to kick out most reporters and not sit down for challenging questions or interviews from many people. Let's see. I don't, yes. And now he's still like, we just watched him get the four hardest questions. He could have gotten in any interview. Uh, like, his approval rating is

40% he's the worst president in American history. I think it does, in your him, to what the

“coverage would look like if the space were filled by a voice other than his. And I think in ways that”

are subtle, him being so accessible, it kind of takes the teeth out of a Democratic argument that he's like a, a, a, a, a, a raging authoritarian looking to squash the free press and destroy American democracy. I can get like being around him all the time, seeing him all the time. I think kind of blunts that a little bit, both for reporters and for Americans. I do. I think we don't know what it would look like for him to not be doing this much, but I don't think the fact that it's approval

rating is so low is because this doesn't work. Yeah. I think that, I think there's a difference between accessibility and like I think that because of Donald Trump, the expectation now among both journalists and probably a lot of Americans is that their president will be constantly communicating about everything that happens all the time. And so I think that if you do not do that, as a president, you will get yourself into trouble. Like I think his constant style of communication

is probably helpful. I think like, you know, being more accessible to reporters here and there is like,

“I think for him, it might be okay because he's lying about everything anyway and he's screaming”

at them all anyway, but like I feel at the next Democratic president doing a 30 interviews a day by phone is not going to redown to their benefit. No, I would say, well, we just don't have a counterfactual because it was, you know, Joe Biden was Joe Biden before that was Barack Obama

who had a more traditional kind of relationship with the press. I think the answer is somewhere

between is not between Obama and Biden, it's between Trump and Obama as to how much access you'll want and it because I think the Obama style and someone who is as disciplined as Barack Obama being more accessible and being a little bit looser is probably answer. Yeah, look, I think him freewheeling it is probably a net benefit. That said, just giving you Ron context again, like he is a big shit right now because despite all this access, he did not prepare the country for

what he was going to do, right? He used didn't use to save the union to play out a plan. He isn't really good delivered a speech about what we're going to do in Iran. So I think it is harmed him in that he has come away as being unserious when he's doing like an event with the MLS soccer team about casualty is in Iran and then telling like Leonardo Messi that he looks hot. I literally happened. I just was the guy next to Leonardo Messi told him he's hot for his name, but yeah.

And I just, I've noticed that the quality of the questions he gets is just lower because he doesn't face Garbaldas as a reporter. A couple good real reporters and then you'll have like Lindell TV or whatever. Yeah, like the way that Sean McCreech asks that question, I think last week about the school in Iran. Yeah. And just like the way that he, not just the fact of the question,

but the way that he phrase the question, you never hear that. Well, I was just saying,

I thought it was a great question. That is the hardest question I've ever seen a present in asked. Like I don't think you've ever seen a question phrase exactly like that because we never read a present at that. No, we never. Well, that's a point because that is the right, that is the right way to ask a question of someone so despicable as Donald Trump, but it's hard to find that balance. But to your point, like, what was that Friday Thursday, right? Like, so we're just saying

that like, oh, it's been a weekend since he was in a full press conference where half the questions were real and serious and tough questions and half of them were foolish at dumb questions from, like, if you just took the serious questions he's getting, he is taking probably far more serious questions for you out Joe Biden. And then when a Barack Obama took when Barack Obama was, well, we considered a very accessible president. I don't think that's true.

interviews where Trump sitting down with Tapper, Trump sitting down with Savannah Guthrie,

Trump sitting down with 60 minutes, like, those are tough real difficult interviews. He, like, Peter Ducey's maybe one of the the better ones when he's running in Caitlin Collins when she's allowed in there. But he does with a light touch. Right. Peter Ducey, like, Caitlin's, Caitlin's probably the best one in the press score. There, there are some real reporters sprinkled in with some very stupid ridiculous people. Yeah, look, I think Sean McCreech's question was great and good on him

“for asking it. I think that used to be the norm. Yes. I remember I'm not going to go as a political”

reporter. And I think it was George H. W. Bush said that the United States should be okay with assassinating foreign leaders and he and his buddy ran around every event and asked him who he would

kill first and why. It was ruined his whole like roll out of it and like that should be what we're at.

Yeah. Well, yes, those were when when Barack Obama or George H. W. Bush or someone did a press conference, remember it would be like you would set up the Eastern read, set up a space it was outside of the normal room. It was like you made a moment of it because it was like kind of less frequent and then the questions were all very serious hitting on all the major newspapers. Like Trump breaks that up and and like I don't need to have to, you know, do the actual

math and the given takes. But the fact that he is, he is just that he is as accessible to the

mainstream media as any president we've ever. It's a truth. All right. Well, including to us, hopefully call me back, sir. Okay. Should I text them? Oh, yeah. Thanks down. Just to pick of me. I can text them. All right, guys. That's our show for today. Dan and I will be back with a new show

“on Friday. If you want to listen to parts of America, add free and get access to exclusive podcasts,”

go to cricket.com/friends to subscribe on supercast, sub-stack, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Also, please consider leaving us a review that helps boost this episode and everything we do here at cricket. Pods Av America is a cricket media production. Our producer is Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Faris Safari. Austin Fisher is our senior producer, Reed Churnland is our executive editor. Adrian Hill is our head of news and politics.

The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer

“with audio support from Kyle Segland and Charlotte Landes. Matt DeGroat is our head of”

production, Naomi Single is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cone, Haley Jones, Ben Hefkoat, Mia Kalman, Carol Pelevi, David Toll's and Ryan Young. Our production staff is probably unionized with the writer's guild of America at least. In moments like these, it's easy to fill overwhelmed and even easier to fill powerless. But we are neither. I'm Stacey Abrams and on my podcast, Assembly Required, I take on each executive

action, legislative battle, and breaking news moment by asking three questions. What's really happening? What can we do about it? And how do we keep going together? This is a space for clarity, strategy, and hope rooted in action, not denial. New episodes of Assembly Required drop Tuesdays, tune in wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.